Hawksbill Turtle Project

Project Animal(s) : Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Project Category : Reptiles
Project Region : Africa
Project Type : Conservation
Project URL : http://www.wildlifelandtrust.org/sanctuaries/conservation-projects/hawksbill-turtle-project.html
Project is timebound? : No

The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust has worked with a number of district offices of The Nature Conservancy, from Canada to North Carolina. While our missions are not exactly the same, our shared vision of protecting open landscapes allows us to partner on selected projects.

The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust also has a history of working closely with Milton Kaufmann, founder of WIDECAST and long-time wildlife activist. HSWLT and Mr. Kaufmann have combined expertise and other resources on behalf of wildlife in many places around the world.

These three organizations came together in 2008 for a specific habitat protection project located on one of the small islands off the larger island of Jamaica. Wild turtles were coming ashore to nest and then inadvertently being lured to a former guano mining pit that has since flooded. Unfortunately, the mortality risk was extremely high. The flooded mine becomes a maze of underground excavations, and the turtles quickly become confused and ultimately drown.

The investment by HSWLT, combined with others, provided for a temporary solution to turtle access to this hazard by providing for exclusionary fencing. This fencing was designed and implemented in such a way that it did not interfere with the normal patterns of the turtles to access the beaches for nesting purposes. A long-term goal of the project is to acquire enough funds to fill the guano cavern and permanently eliminate the risk.

Project Agency : Humane Society Wildlife Land and Trust

Project Agency Contact : http://www.wildlifelandtrust.org/

Project Researcher : Milton Kaufmann

Additional Information :

Youtube - https://youtu.be/0rHDtbtCcGg